Department of Defense to start accepting Android phones for top-secret classified information
That’s one small step for Android, and one giant leap for Android-kind. It looks like the US Department of Defense is about to end its reliance on Blackberry as a secure platform as the government is making amends to its smartphone policy. The new policy will allow government officials to use top Android phones from the likes of Samsung to access information and communication channels up to classification levels of top-secret.
The Department of Defense says it’s crucial for its soldiers and officials to have access to modern devices in order to facilitate better collaboration in the cloud and things of that nature. In other words, it’s time to ditch the archaic, dated phones of yesteryear and get with the times. The significance of this development is huge, as most folks believe the biggest thing keeping Android from completely burying Blackberry is a lack of sufficient security.
The new policy isn’t totally BYOD — or “bring your own device” — unfortunately, but you might be able to understand why. The devices DoD is ordering, about 600,000 of them, have been scrutinized very carefully to ensure they’re secure enough for this task. Bringing your $100 PAYG phone won’t be ideal because there’s no way for the DoD to ensure all the different unique devices swirling about meet the same standard of security.
Android has already broken several barriers in the enterprise sector as OEMs have built devices to be secure and flexible enough for businesses to do their bidding on almost any wireless device you can imagine. Samsung has been one of the biggest players in paving the way for Android’s dominance in enterprise with its SAFE-certified program. HTC, LG, Sony, Motorola and more are all doing fantastic jobs of their own.
Enterprise and government are the last two markets where Blackberry, formerly RIM, still has a strong grip, and if it continues to lose the hearts of those folks it’s tough to see it climbing back into the smartphone race anytime soon. The tides are turning all over, folks, and it’ll be a fun ride to see what it leaves behind as the water spills back into the proverbial sea.
[via iSource]